KKR, MI to start preparing for IPL season 10 from Saturday

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is just 11 days away and the teams are already gearing up for the big battle ahead. Two of the most successful franchises of the cash-rich league, The Kolkata Knight Riders and the Mumbai Indians are to start the preparing for the 10th season of the flamboyant league from Saturday.

The Kolkata side, co-owned by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan suffered a major blow as their star pacer, Trent Boult was ruled out of the second Test against the Proteas in Wellington. The team earlier faced a similar situation when West Indian power hitter Andre Russell was ruled out of the 10th season of the Indian Premier League after he was banned by an independent Jamaican Anti-Doping body.

Boult is expected to regain full fitness before the tournament kicks off as he is an important part of the men in purple. Indian left-handed opener Gautam Gambhir, who has captained the Kolkata Knight Riders both the times they lifted the trophy is expected to join the preparatory camp on Monday.

However assistant coach Simon Katich will begin the camp on Saturday along with the likes of Ankit Rajpoot, Sheldon Jackson, and Sayan Ghosh. Jacques Kallis, Kolkata’s head coach will join the squad after a few days the reasons being personal.

On the other hand, Mumbai Indians’ camp will get underway from Saturday at the Wankhede stadium. The campaign would be led by Rohit Sharma who is also nursing a knee injury and would be under the guidance of their new head coach Mahela Jayawardene. The camp is supposed to be of 9 days which would continue till the 2nd of April after which the team is scheduled to travel to Pune for their first encounter of the season against the Rising Pune Supergiants on April 6th.

The former Sri Lankan skipper would be supported by the Mumbai Indians support staff which includes Robin Singh (batting coach), Jonty Rhodes (fielding coach), Shane Bond (bowling coach), Paul Chapman (trainer) and Nitin Patel (physio).

The Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma missed the Deodhar Trophy due to a knee injury but will attend the camp along with India teammates Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya. They will also be accompanied by the retained players of the squad and the team’s new signings Karn Sharma, Krishnappa Gowtham and Saurabh Tiwary.

The first foreign player to join the squad will be West Indian youngster Nicolas Pooran whereas the others will follow in the days to come. Few of the players are also to join the squad after the completion of the Deodhar Trophy which gets underway from Saturday.